


Whispers

by juggieheadcoopers



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 22:58:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10774248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juggieheadcoopers/pseuds/juggieheadcoopers
Summary: Hal Cooper is found guilty of murdering Jason Blossom and in the fallout of his arrest, Betty is getting bullied at school by her classmates and Jughead is there to support her through it all





	Whispers

_"Can you believe she showed up today?”_

_"There’s no way I’d show my face around here after what happened.”_

_"She’s a disgrace to Jason’s memory, someone should talk to the principal about getting her expelled.”_

_"She’s such a freak. Total head case.”_

_"You know what they say. Like father, like daughter I guess.”_

Betty slammed her locker door shut as hard as she could, hoping that the sound of metal on metal would block out the whispers that had been following her around all morning. As soon as she entered through the double doors of the high school, it was as if every eye turned to watch her, following her every move and waiting for her to snap.

“Cheryl!” Betty caught a glimpse of the silky red hair bobbing down the hallway and she pushed past the sea of classmates to catch up to her. 

“Get away from me, you spawn of a heartless murderer,” Cheryl snapped, quickening her pace as her two obedient minions formed a protective shield around her, blocking Betty from coming too close. “Hasn’t your family done enough? Just leave us alone. Leave me alone.” 

“If you could just let me explain then I could-” Betty struggled to get the words out before Cheryl’s sidekicks stopped short, stepping together to form a blockade to prevent Betty from creating a path to Cheryl. 

“Psycho,” they spat at the same time, their words sliding off of their lips like venom as they removed the lids from their coffee cups and threw the lukewarm contents all over Betty’s favorite baby blue sweater. 

“No!” Betty gasped, pawing at the sweater with her fingers in the pointless attempt to prevent a stain from forming on the fabric. “This isn’t happening.” 

Betty turned back to the locker she had just left in hopes of changing into her gym shirt before first period, but as she finally made her way back through the crowd to her section of lockers, she came face to face with the word “MURDERER” written in thick red letters all across the metal surface.

“Who - who did this?” Betty asked no one in particular, her voice barely audible as her pulse started to quicken and her breathing came in panicked spurts. She could feel that anger rising up in her - the darkness she couldn’t control. As her classmates passed by, reading her locker, watching the girl who’s father had just been arrested for the murder of the beloved Jason Blossom, she felt herself digging her nails into her palms deeper, deeper, deeper until-

“Hey,” Jughead came into Betty’s view, taking her fists in his hands and prying them open so that her nails dropped away from her palms. “Shhh, Bets, you’re okay.” 

“Jug,” Betty breathed, her eyes darting all around the hallway, taking in every last person who was whispering, watching, wondering. “I can’t do this, everyone is staring at me like I’m the one who killed Jason.” 

“Betty, look at me,” Jughead told her, taking her face in his hands and stroking her cheeks gently with his thumbs. “Come on, just focus on my voice. Think about you and me in a booth at Pop’s. Just the two of us. No parents, no judgmental backstabbers. Just us.” 

“Juggie, he’s ruined my life.” Betty’s voice was so small, so unlike her own, that Jughead wasn’t entirely sure that she was the one who had spoken the words in the first place. But as he took in the sad and broken frown and the tears beginning to pool up in her eyes, he knew that it could have only been Betty who had said anything. 

“No, he hasn’t,” Jughead assured her. “Don’t give him that kind of power. He might have taken it upon himself to end another person’s life, but that doesn’t make him powerful. He can never take away your life with the sins he’s committed. You’re too strong for him to take anything away from you.” 

“I don’t feel very strong right now,” Betty mumbled, her voice breaking slightly as she let the tears begin to fall slowly down her cheeks.

“You proved that you were by showing up today,” Jughead reminded her, wiping away a stray tear with his thumb before it fell to the tiled floor. “Some people would have taken this opportunity to hide in bed all day, shutting out the rest of the world until they felt semi-normal again. But you chose to face whatever life threw at you by actually being here to face it. That takes more strength than you could possibly know.” 

“Yeah, well, I almost did stay at home,” Betty admitted. “I was one bag of cheese doodles and a DVD box set of the OC away from skipping school altogether.”

“But you didn’t,” Jughead offered, smoothing back a stray hair from popping out of her ponytail and smiling down at her reassuringly. “That’s what matters.”

Betty tried to return his smile, but her gaze was promptly drawn back to the locker and the coffee stain and the whispers and glares coming from all around her.

“But I can’t even make it down the hallway without feeling that darkness bubbling up inside of me,” Betty said, fear clouding her expression as a terrible thought suddenly flashed across her mind. “Juggie, what if I end up just like my dad. What if I do something like he did to-”

“That will never happen,” Jughead promised her, his eyes pleading with her to believe his words as he held her face in his hands. “Your father did what he did because he chose to give in to his own darkness. You choose to fight that same darkness everyday just by getting up and breathing and doing the very best that you can. That’s more than your father has ever done. That’s what sets you apart from him.” 

“I’m scared,” Betty’s voice cracked as a fresh set of tears popped up at the corners of her eyes. 

“Of what?” Jughead wanted to know, his eyebrows drawing together in concern for the girl who had been his entire world for so long. “Cheryl and those girls?”

“No,” Betty breathed, her voice barely above a whisper. “Of ending up alone. Like my father.” 

Before either of them said another word, Jughead pulled Betty into his arms, wishing that he could hug and kiss and love away all the pain that she was feeling.

“Betty you will always have me,” he whispered into her hair, pulling back slightly to meet her eyes. “No matter what happens, no matter what anyone says, it will always be you and me.” 

“You mean that?”

“With all my heart,” Jughead promised, letting his forehead rest gently against hers before stepping away and gesturing to the quickly dispersing crowd of students in front of them as everyone made their way to their first class. “Now, let’s conquer this hallway together. What do you say?” 

Jughead held out his hand for her to take, his eyes promising love and trust and hope as he looked down to meet her gaze.

“I say that I’m still scared,” Betty admitted, glancing from Jughead, to the herd of people, and back again. “But I won’t be a coward like my father. And I will never become him.” 

With those final words, Betty laced her fingers through Jughead’s, blocking out everything but the other’s presence as they took their first few steps down the hallway and into the unknown together.


End file.
